Yes, it sounds like a pick-up line that would generally lead to the proverbial “talk to the hand!” response, but one can certainly say when British loudspeaker and audio manufacturer Bowers & Wilkins approached Italian ultra-luxury sports car manufacturer, Maserati, to launch the Seven Notes project, passers-by might question what the couple had in common. But when the two truly came together, love was found and a pair of iconic hearts began to float.

Bowers & Wilkins originally approached Maserati in regards to the distinct sound of their engine.

The two had regularly been working together to produce and set a standard for premium audio within the luxury performance vehicle, the Quatrroporte, Italian for four-door.

What they found after digging a bit deeper was a musical scale derived from the distinctive sounds of the engine at different rpm’s.

From there a quick call to Howie-B, one of the most sought after musical producers, to be the Master of ceremonies for this union, a couple grueling months in London’s Abbey Road Studios with his friends from British rock band, All We Are, and soon thereafter you enter the new world where autophile meets audiophile.

Welcome to Seven Notes!

Kicked off in Dubai on April 24th and channeling through the Middle Kingdom in Beijing and Shanghai, Seven notes debuted in New York on June 13th to New York lovers from both sides of the aisle, and when it comes to a union like this, attendees can’t wait to get out on the dance floor.

Head of Marketing and Communication at Maserati North America, Andrea Soriani, spoke about their initial collaboration.

“Maserati and Bowers and Wilkins—they both have a long tradition of craftsmanship, engineering, and performance,” said Soriani.

“So, when we were about to reengineer the Maserati Quattroporte—our sixth generation… we were looking for something really unique. So we chose Bowers and Wilkins for our premium audio system,” he added.

Soriani highlighted the difficulty for ensuring the highest quality of sound from the premium audio system and how the process wasn’t as simple a quick installation of speakers, but a modification of the structural engineering of the car.

“In a car, you have a lot of components, you have seats, you have different materials, you have wood and carbon fiber, you can have aluminum, and you have leather. Some materials absorb the sound and some other materials just bounce it. So, [their] engineers spent a lot of time in Modena, our headquarters, with our engineers to really find the optimum result from the audio system,” said Soriani.

This collaboration began a dialogue for much more sweeter music.

“We were looking for a way of expressing our partnership with them. They talk about the musicality of the engine, and the Maserati engine has certain unique sound to it. It’s really very different from any other engine. And we suggested to them as the mythology of the engine has music, why didn’t we do a recording and take the car into a facility and record the engine and see if we could make music with it.”

“And we found that at different engine revolutions, there were different notes, and we actually found seven of them. Given seven notes, we had a scale and that is a unique Maserati scale. The seven notes form the basis for the music we have been playing.”

Two original pieces were produced from the project, and many New Yorkers were quite enchanted by its Sigur Ros-like feel.

So if you plan on owning a Quattroporte or simply want to jam while in your ride to sounds of the most premium ride, you can download the Seven Notes audio tracks for free at www.sevennotes.com.